Hello  and  welcome  back  to the  weekly  rundown  presented  by  The  Minnesota  Daily. I'm  your  host,  Paul  Hodowanic. And  this  week  we  are  checking  back  in  with the  men's  basketball  team  as  they  head into  really  the  last  month  of  the  regular  season. And  then  into  the  Big  Ten  tournament. And  hopefully  to  prepare  for  the  NCA  tournament. We  will  get  to  that  later, but  to  talk  about  it, we  bring  in  our  men's  basketball  beat  reporter, Nick  Young  him,  how  are  you  doing,  Nick? Doing  great,  despite  the  fact  that  I'm  freezing. Yeah,  it  is  negative  30. Wind  chill  outside  as  we're talking  to  you  on  this  Thursday  morning. So  hopefully  when  you're  listening  to  this, you're  listening  somewhere  warm and  not  with  negative  30  degree  temps  outside  around  you. So  as  always,  make  sure  to  check  out  Nick's  work at  Mendaly.com  You  don't  have  to  go  outside  to  do  that. But  if  you  do  venture  outside  to  pick  up  a  paper, you  can  do  that  at  any  building on  campus.  Let's  jump  right  in. So  the  Gophers  little  season  overview, right  now  they  are  12.11  on the  year,  teetering  around  500. That  can  be  attributed  to  a  hard  non  conference  schedule, which  usually  would  have  seen them  climb  up  in  the  winds  ranks. But  they  took  a  little  bit  of  a  harder  schedule and  stumbled  a  little  bit  in  there. So  they're  still  just  right  around  500. They're  right  around  500  in  the  conference. 6.7  there. That's  good  enough  for  ninth  in  the  big  ten. Standing  around  the  half  level  of  the  big  ten,  maybe. Bottom  half,  teetering  that  way. And  they're  10.2  at  home.  Hard  to  beat  at  home. But  as  we've  kind  of  chronicled throughout  this  year  and  years  previous, they  really  struggle  on  the  road. They're  1.8  on  the  road. And  that's  not  a  thing  that  just  the  gophers  have  done. It's  been  kind  of  across  the  big  ten, it's  gotten  a  little  better  lately, but  still  everyone's  struggling  to  win  on  the  road. So  that  isn't  a  huge  surprise. So  given  all  that,  Nick, is  this  about  where  we  expected  them  to  be  at  this  point? Yeah.  I  think  that  record  wise, 12.11  overall,  6.7  in  conference. That  would  seem  about  right. If  you  asked  me  in  November, I  am  a  little  surprised  that  they're actually  on  the  bubble  with  that  record. But  the  big  ten  has  been  so  competitive, you  could  see  if  everything  falls  in  the  correct  way. 12  teams  from  this  conference  getting  in. And  I  mean,  all  throughout  December, that  seemed  like  these  teams  eventually  were going  to  beat  up  on  each  other enough  that  someone  was  going  to  drop  out. But  nobody  has  the  top  to  bottom. Everybody's  still  in  the  race. So  yeah,  I  think  it's  about  where  I  expected, but  I  think  this  team  is  pleased  to  be  on  the  bubble, especially  with  so  many  new  faces  this  year. Yeah,  I  just  pulled  up  the  bracketology  right  now. Joe  Leonardi,  he  updated  this  on  Tuesday. He  has  11  big  ten  teams  currently  in  his  bracket. Indiana  is  among  the  last  four  in, and  Minnesota  is  among  the  last  four  out. So  like  you  said, 12  teams  kind  of  teetering. I  find  it  hard  to  believe  by the  end  of  the  season  that  12  will  make  it  in. Just  because  so  many  teams  are  going  to  play  each  other, just  those  two  teams  on  the  bubble. Minnesota  and  Indiana  have yet  to  play  each  other  this  season. They've  got  two  coming Indiana  or  Minnesota  plays  Indiana  at  home  soon. And  then  later  they  go  to Indiana  almost  to  close  out  the  season. So  it  feels  like  that  number  will  just  have  to  decrease. Just  because  I  do  feel  like  the  league  might have  is  going  to  cannibalize  itself  just  a  little  bit. But  at  this  point  in  the  season, to  have  that  many  teams  is  pretty  impressive. The  closest  conference  is  the  Big  East  with  six, a  couple  with  five,  and  then  it really  tapers  down  from  there. Regardless,  Big  Ten  is  the  dominant  conference  this  year. Looking  at  Minnesota,  specifically, what  are  the  main  reasons  they're  at  12.11  both  good. That's  gotten  them  to  that  point where  they've  had  a  couple  upset  wins. But  then  also  the  stuff  that  they've  struggled  at, which  has  not  allowed  them  to break  through  as  much  as  they  may  have  hoped. Well,  the  good.  Obviously,  Turu becoming  one  of  the  best  big  men, one  of  the  best  players  not  only in  the  conference  but  in  the  country. He's  taken  a  giant  leap  forward  from his  freshman  year  when  he  was  already  solid  contributor. Now  he's  taken  over that  front  court  with  Jordan  Murphy  gone, and  he's  really  exceeded  all  expectations. And  Marcus  Carr  to what  he's  brought  to  that  point  guard  position, Both  scoring  in  big  games  and  dishing  out  assists. Making  the  offense  work. That's  something  they  haven't had  the  last  couple  of  years, but  Car  really  brought  it. So  I  think  those  two, they  obviously  jump  out. Coaches  say  they're  the  two  guys  who  are always  A  and  B  on  the  scouting  report. That's  the  reason  for  the  good, but  the  reason  for  the  bad. A  couple  of  things  is  consistency. They've  had  some  great  games, especially  at  home  against  competitive  big  ten  teams, but  then  they've  also  gone  on  the  road. Penn  State,  last  weekend  they  came  out  pretty  flat, the  Iowa  game  to  start the  Big  Ten  way  back  in  December,  20  point  loss. Those  are  the  performances  that they  have  to  avoid  and  then  also depth  bench  scoring  has  been almost  nonexistent  throughout  much  of  the  season. Amongst  reserve  players, Trey  Williams  leads  the  way  with  3.5  points  per  game. And  then  nobody  else  averaging  more  than  two. So  you  know,  they're  really playing  their  top  guys  heavy  minutes. And  Pitino  has  talked  about  that  a  little  bit. They  think  Oturu  and  car  having  to  carry  the  load, play  35,  40  minutes  a  game. And  they  think  that's  just  a  little  too  much. Yeah,  I  pulled  up  the  stats. Oturu  is  averaging  34  minutes. Car  37,  Wher  33.5  Willis  29.8  Alahandmre, 26.6  So  those  are  the  five  starters. They're  all  playing  at  least  25  minutes  per  game. Trey  Williams  is  at  17. Omersat  13  hurt  at  ten. We  don't  see  Michael  hurt  much  anymore. That's  probably  a  product  of  some  early  season reps  more  than  anything. And  Isaiah  Enans  come  in  every  once  in  a  while. 7.4  he's  on,  appeared  in  14  games. Hertz  only  appeared  in  19  of  23. So  it  really  is that  there  starting  five are  really  getting  all  the  minutes, and  that  just  we've  seen  it, it's  not  super  sustainable. It  happened  last  year.  Murphy  and  Coffee  both  had a  couple  little  nagging  injuries heading  into  the  later  part  of  the  season. Murphy's  injury  obviously  made  him miss  the  Michigan  State  game that  ended  Minnesota's  season. So  that'll  be  something  that  we  definitely have  to  look  at  going  forward  to  make  sure  they're, the  guys  are  staying  healthy  as  we  continue to  really  get  into  the  meat  of this  schedule  and  get  to  the  point  where  they need  all  of  them healthy  if  they're  going  to  make  a run  and  if  they're  going  to  do  anything. And  then  a  tournaments,  if  any  of  those  starters  go  out minus  they've  had  Peyton  Willis who's  been  in  and  out  and they've  done  all  right  without  him. But  if  they  lose  to  car, that's  kind  of  the  spell,  the  spell  of  death. You  know,  they  can't  really  recover  from  that or  they  haven't  shown  that  off  of  those  two  players. I  think  coming  into  the  season, people  maybe  thought  Sophomore  Gabe  Kalscher, after  the  really  promising  freshman  year  that  he  had, was  going  to  kind  of  step  up. I  know.  I  thought  maybe  heading  into  the  season, he  might  be  the  number  one  option. He  hasn't  been  that  so  far. His  three  point  percentage  has  dropped  from  41%  to  33% So  why  do  we  think  Kalscher hasn't  been  as  big  of  a  contributor  of  this  season? Yeah,  it's  interesting,  and  I  don't  know  that  I have  a  single  answer  that  you  can  point  to. Because  we  knew  the  offense was  going  to  have  a  different  look  this  year. They  were  going  to  shoot  more. And  while  that  may have  taken  some  of  the  pressure  off  Kalscher, maybe  he  wouldn't  have  had  to  take such  a  high  percentage  of  the  teams. You  would  think  that  it  would  help him  shooting  because  teams would  have  to  pay  attention  to  other  guys like  Car  and  Willis  on  the  perimeter. But  his  three  point  shooting percentage  has  gone  down  from 41%  to  33%  I  don't  know. The  coaches  keep  telling  him  to  keep  shooting because  they  know  he's  a  better  shooter than  what  his  percentage  has  been. And  he  said  a  couple  games recently  where  he's  shot  it  a  little  better. But  overall,  I  think the  consistency  has  been  what's  bringing  him  down. And  he  just  says  games  where he  seems  to  shoot  a  low  percentage. If  he  doesn't  start  early, he  might  not  recover  and  might  end  up shooting  two  for  ten  on  the  night. And  it's  been  puzzling because  this  system  really  seems  to  suit him  and  there  isn't  anything  apparent. We  don't  know  about  any major  injuries  that  are  nagging  him. So  unless  it's  something behind  the  scenes  that  we're  not  aware  of, I  mean,  his  mechanics  seem  like  they're  the  same. I  I  don't  have  a  concrete  explanation  for  why his  three  point  shooting  has  gone  down  by  8%  Yeah. And  it  kind  of  looked  like  he was  mid  December,  late  December. He  was  looked  to  kind  of  be  getting  out  of  that. Even  earlier  in  November, he  had  a  five  game  stretch where  he  was  in  double  digits  every  game. Then  he  shot  over  ten  against  Iowa,  set  him  back. But  then  against  Ohio  State, 15  points,  Oklahoma  State, that  was  the  game,  he  was  just  on  fire. He  had  was  79  from  311, from  14,  34  points. Then  the  next  game  against  FIU, he  had  23  points. Then  per  due  he  had  13. So  it  seemed  like  maybe  he  was  going  to  come  out  of  that. But  then  the  next  five  games  he  held  under nine  points  Every  game  jumped  up  a  little  bit. Recently  For  the  last  five  games  he's  in  double  digits, but  it's  the  shooting  percentages  aren't  great. Four  for  122,  for  114, for  144,  for  11. Those  are  his  last  four  games. So  it  is  a  little  puzzling  besides  those  three  guys, as  we  head  into  this  latter  part  of  the  year, we  are  some  of  the  names  we're  not  talking  about  that we  may  need  to  keep  an  eye  going  forward, That  may  be  key  as  we  head  into  this  stretch  run. Well,  I  think  Trey  Williams  will  be one  guy  I'm  looking  at  because  he's the  main  guy  off  the  bench  for  any  of those  guards  and  he's  shown  a  lot  of  ability. I've  been  impressed  with  his  athleticism  and, you  know,  some  of  the  things  he  can  do. Driving  to  the  basket  is  finishing  ability. His  decision  making  is  one  thing  that Have  to  improve  a  little  bit. I  remember  against  Penn  State  one pass  in  particular  looking  for  too. That  was  pretty  ill  advised  and  it  wound  up resulting  in  a  turnover  and  a  fast  break  for  Penn  State. Some  things  like  that  he's  going  to  have  to  improve  on. And  he  is  just  a  freshman, so  it's  to  be  expected  a  little  bit, but  the  Gophers  need  an  option  aside from  those  first  five  who  overall, you  would  probably  be  satisfied  with their  production  if  you're Richard  Patino  and  the  Gopher  staff. But  off  the  bench, it's  hard  to  win  with  just  five  guys  in  March, They  need  somebody,  and  Trey  Williams  has really  emerged  as  the  main  guy  off  that  bench. Yeah.  And  if  they're  going  to  make  it, that's  the  key,  is  they're  going  to  need  something. And  looking  at,  can  they  make  the  NCA  tournament? I  think  that's  what  everyone's  looking  at  right  now. Their  resume  is,  you  know,  it's  pretty  good. 39th  in  the  net  rankings,  That's  not  bad. 63rd  in  RPI,  34  in  strength  of  schedule. The  committee  is  always  looking  at  good,  bad  losses. In  terms  of  good  wins, they  have  Ohio  State  twice. Those  looked  better  earlier  in  the  season. Frankly,  they've  continued  to  stumble. But  I  think  they  are  still  going  to  get  credit because  Ohio  State's  one  of  those  marquee  teams,  I  think. And  given  that  they  beat them  at  a  time  when  they  were  still  doing  well, I  think  those  are  going  to  count  for  something. Penn  State's  a  good  win, they're  ranked,  Michigan  is  a  good  win. Bad  losses.  I  struggled  to  find that  many  bad  losses  that  you  could  really  consider. Nick,  do  you  think  there  are  any  bad  losses that  the  committee  is  going  to  look  at  and  say, I  don't  know  that  game  should  have  gone  Minnesota's  way. I  don't  think  there  are  any  bad  losses  just  because the  schedule  has  been  so  tough  this  year  that they  haven't  played  many  teams who  would  fit  into  that  category  of  a  bad  loss. I  think  looking  back  to  Paul  is  one  of  those  games  where, even  though  they  were,  I  believe, undefeated  at  the  time, De  Paul  has  struggled  in  conference  play. And  they've,  you  know,  they've lost  a  bunch  of  games  in  the  row and  they've  fallen  out  from bubble  contention  since  playing  Minnesota. But  even  then,  De  Paul  was a  good  team  there  in  the  Big  East, which  is  maybe  the  most competitive  conference  aside  from  the  Big  Ten. That's  not  a  bad  loss. I  think  when  the  Gophers  look  bad  at  it, it  won't  be  any  opponents  that  they  regret  losing  to. But  it'll  be  some  of  the  games like  the  double  overtime  and  Purdue, maybe  the  Illinois  game, where  they  could  have  had  it, they  could've  beat  a  good  team on  the  road  and  it  just  slipped  away  at  the  end. So  I  think  it's  going  to  be more  missed  opportunities  and  bad  losses. Yeah,  that  Purdue  game  sticks  out. In  particular,  we  were  in  our  hotel  in Tampa  for  the  outback  bowl  game. And  we  were  watching  that  and looked  like  they  had  it  a  couple  times. And  Purdue  has  gone  on  to  have some  good  wins  against Michigan  State  and  some  other  teams. And  so  that  it  was  an  away  game, and  those  at  that  point  had  really  not  happened. So  that  would  have  been a  really  nice  win  that  they  wouldn't  have  had. And  I  would  bet  if  they  had  that  one, they  may  be  one  of  those  last  four in  or  not  on  the  first  four  out. So  that's  kind  of  one  where you  kind  of  look  back  and  you, you  wonder  what  if  they  have  eight  games  left  at 12:11  It's  a  struggle because  they  have  played  a  tough  schedule. They  have  some  good  wins. They  don't  have  that  many  losses. But  12,  11. Let's  look  at  these  next  eight  games. It's  at  home  against  Iowa, which  they're  ten  in  two  at  home. But  Iowa  is  going  to  be  a  tough  game. They  weren't  very  competitive against  them  the  first  time  around. Indiana  at  home,  we  mentioned they're  one  of  the  last  four  in, so  that's  kind  of  up  in  the  air  at  Northwestern. Conceivably,  should  be  a  win at  home  against  Maryland.  Maryland's  really  good. They're  going  to  be  a  top  four  seed. Not  like  a  number  one  seed  potentially, but  one  of  the  top  four  seeds  in  a  bracket  at  Wisconsin. You  never  know.  There  at  Indiana, like  we  said,  they're  right  there. And  then  at  home  against  Nebraska, how  many  wins  do  we  feel like  they  need  to  get  out  of  that  group? And  which  ones  do  you  think  they  need  to  highlight  or  a game  that  you  think  maybe  they  have  a  shot in  that  maybe  they  wouldn't  be  favored  in, that  could  really  elevate  them. Because  I'm  looking  at  the  2019  bracket  from  last  year. Not  that  many  teams  make it  with  having  less  than  like  19  wins. 19  wins  is  the  benchmark for  teams  that  made  it  last  year. Minnesota  had  21,  they  were  a  ten  seed. I'm  looking  at  some  of  the  bigger,  other  big  teams. Baylor  was  a  nine  seed,  they  were  1913. Florida  was  a  ten  seat  at 19:15  Ohio  State  was  an  11  seat  at 19:14  Some  of  the  only  other  teams  that  were  lower were  just  automatic  bid  teams that  made  it  in  with  a  lesser  record. So  it  might  be  different this  year  just  based  on  how  it  is  always  fluctuating. But  it  feels  like  they  need  to  get  closer  to 20  and  they'd  have  to  win  every  game  to  get  to  20. So  what  are  we  looking  at as  games  they  can  win  conceivably? Yeah,  you  said  it.  Coach  Patina  was  talking about  it  in  his  last  press  conference.  And He  said  that  he  feels  good. If  they  can  win  four  out  of  eight, I  think  there  are  definitely  four  to  five wins  on  the  schedule. They've  gotten  through  the  toughest part  of  the  big  ten  slate. And  the  two  the  hardest  teams they'll  play  from  here  on  out  are  both  at  home. And  that's  Iowa  and  Maryland. I  think.  Indiana  at  home  at Northwestern,  home  against  Nebraska. Those  are  games,  they  should  definitely  win. And  if  they  drop  one  of  those,  they  could  be  in  trouble. But  conversely,  if  they  beat  Iowa  or  Maryland, we'll  be  in  really  good  shape. And  then  you  still  have  the  Big  Ten  tournament, where  if  you  pick  up  a  winner  two there,  we'll  be  in  good  shape. So  I  would  expect  four  to  five  regular  season  wins. And  then  at  that  point, if  you  can  win  two  games  in  the  Big  Ten  tournament, you're  in  really  great  shape. Otherwise,  if  you  win five  games  in  a  game  in  the  Big  Ten  tournament, you're  also  putting  yourself  in  the  conversation. It  just  kind  of  depends  on  a  lot  of  things  like who  those  wins  are  against and  how  the  bubble  ends  up  playing  out. So  I  don't  know  if  19  will  be  the  magic  number  this  year, but  it  hasn't  just  been  the  big  ten, it's  been  all  of  college  basketball. And  when  it  comes  to  selection, Sunday,  that's  who  you're  competing  against. So  there's  still  a  lot  of  ways  the  dominoes  could  fall. And  it'll  be  interesting  to  see  how  it  plays  out  because it's  been  one  of  the  most  entertaining college  basketball  seasons  I  can  remember. The  chaos  should  definitely  continue. I  think  it's  just  ramping  up  now and  it's  going  to  build  all  the  way  to  the  final  four. Yeah,  I  would  say  for fans  looking  at  these  first  two  games, I  think  that'll  give  us  a  really  nice  indication of  where  they  can  be. If  they  can  come  out  and  beat Iowa  and  beat  Indiana,  they're  2.0  there. They're  now  8.7  in  the  conference. 14.11  And  then  they  have  at  Northwestern  after  that. If  they  go  three  and there  I  feel  really  good  about  where  they  are about  maybe  scratching  out  to  win either  at  Wisconsin  or  at Indiana  with  the  momentum  that  they  have. And  then  beating  Nebraska  to  finish. And  that  would  kind  be  my  recipe. I  don't  want  to  jump  to, I  don't  want  to  hope  too  much  with  that  Maryland  game, just  with  all  the  talent  that  they  have. But  it  does  seem  like  it's  going  to  kind  of come  down  to  the  last  couple  days  of  the  season, seeing  where  all  the  other  teams  are. They're  the  nine  seed  right  now  in  the  Big  Ten. Which  would  mean  they  are  getting a  first  round  by  because  the  ten  through  14  teams  play. And  then  they  would  play  9.8  And  I believe  they'd  go  on  and  play  the  one  seed  conceivably, they  could  get  one  win  there  if  they stay  stand  pat  with  where  they  are, But  two  wins,  they  need  to  get  some  sort  of  upset, which  I'm  not  saying  they  can't  do. Obviously,  they  had  their  success against  Purdue  late  in  the  year  last  year. So  it's  not  impossible, but  it's  a,  it's  a  distant  hope. I  would  say  at  this  point  we've  talked  all  about  this. Now  I  want  to  get  an  answer  from  you. Do  you  think  that  they  will  make  it  as  of  right  now? I  have  a  hard  time  saying  that  just because  based  on  the  inconsistencies, even  though  four  of  these  last  eight  games  are against  the  teams  that  are bottom  three  right  now  in  the  conference. The  way  some  of  those  wins they  had  early  have  shaped  out  Ohio  State  and Michigan  are  not  looking  as  good as  people  may  have thought  they  were  when  Minnesota  beat  them. I  don't  know  that  they  have a  big  quality  win  that  just  jumps  off  the  page, and  they  still  have  the  chance  to  get  that  against Maryland  or  against  a  team  in  the  Big  Ten  tournament. But  I  think  that  we  might  see  fatigue  become  an  issue. Like  we  talked  about,  those  top  guys  have played  a  lot  of  minutes  and there's  still  eight  games  left. So  unless  you  can  find some  contributions  from  the  bench to  give  those  guys  a  break, I  don't  know  that  they're  going  to  have enough  left  in  the  tank  at  this  point. Yeah,  and  I  think  it's  important  to  throw  in a  little  perspective  here that  at  the  beginning  of  the  year, I  don't  think  people  saw  them  getting this  close  at  all  after  coffee  left,  after  Murphy  left. This  was  supposed  to  be  much  of  a  rebuild  season, a  kind  of  bottoming out  and  kind  of  figuring  out  who  you  are  and then  attacking  next  year  and  kind  of  seeing  what  you  got. I  don't  think  people,  I  don't  think  anyone  really expected  the  amount  of  growth  that  Oturu  had. He's  just  been  an  animal  and  fortunately  for  him, and  maybe  unfortunately  for  Gopher  fans, this  is  most  likely  his  last  season  here. He's  getting  first  round  consideration  in  the  NBA  draft, but  they've  still  got  alsher, they've  still  got  Car  who  feels weird  having  a  transfer  come in  and  having  more  than  one  year. But  he's  just  a  red  shirt  sophomore. He's  here  for  the  next  two  years. They've  got  some  good  freshman  to  build  on. But  yeah,  I  think  it's good  to  put  it  in  perspective  and  say, hey,  we  didn't  think  they  were  going  to  get  this  far. And  if  they  do  make  that  say  tournament, I  think  it's  one  of  Patino's best  coaching  jobs  that  he's  had. Just  given  the  expectations and  maybe  the  talent  that  he's  had, He's  been  able  to  get  Demir  to  be  more  than just  a  guy  early  in  the  season that  looked  like  a  liability. He's  put  in  the  ball  on  the  floor, He's  making  things  happen  on  offense and  Jarvis  Somers  has been  a  little  bit  better  on  defense. I  wouldn't  say  it's  been  drastic  improvement, but  he's  getting  better, so  Yeah,  I  think  it  was  just important  to  put  it  into  perspective. Nick,  I  thank  you  for having  for  coming  in  to  talk  with  us today  and  we  look forward  to  your  coverage  for  the  rest  of  the  season. Absolutely.  Thank  you,  Paul. In  other  news,  the  women's basketball  team  lost  a  tough  game  to Michigan  at  home  on Monday  and  played  Ohio  State  on  Thursday. Like  the  men's  team,  they  remain  on  the  outside, looking  in,  hoping  to  make  the  NCAA  tournament. Their  next  chance  to  improve  their  resume  comes  on Monday  in  East  Lansing  against  Michigan  State. The  men's  hockey  team  split their  series  against  Michigan  State  last  weekend, losing  their  six  game  winning  streak. In  the  process,  the  team remains  just  one  point  away  from  first  place  in the  Big  Ten  and  have  another  pivotal  series this  weekend  as  they  take  on  Notre  Dame  on  the  road. The  women's  hockey  team  looks  to  be  emerging  from their  slump  after  dropping three  or  four  games  against  Luth  in  Wisconsin. They  swept  Mi  State  last  weekend. They  have  the  weekend  off  before hosting  Mankato  State  next  weekend. The  wrestling  team  couldn't  put  together an  upset  in  their  last  time  on  the  mats, falling  to  defending  national champions  Penn  State  31  to  ten. They  have  another  brutal  test  this  weekend, as  they  travel  to  number  one  ranked  Iowa. On  Saturday,  the  men's  gymnastics  team  moved  to two  in  dual  meets  on the  season  topping  Washington  last  Friday, behind  strong  performances  from freshman  Dante  Mckinney  and  Crew  Bold. They  head  to  Lincoln  this  week  for a  Tri  meet  against  Nebraska. And  any  the  women's  gymnastics  continues  to  stay  hot. They  came  away  victorious  in their  last  meeting  defeating  Iowa  at  home  last  Saturday. They  will  look  to  improve  to  five and  in  conference  this  weekend  against  Nebraska. The  softball  team  got  their  season  underway  last  weekend, going  3.2  in  the  FCA  Division  One  leadoff  Classic. The  weekend  was  full  of  ups  and downs  for  the  offits  and  defense, and  the  team  will  look  for  more consistent  results  this  weekend. In  the  ESPN  St.  Pete  Clearwater  Elite  Invitational, they  play  four  games, three  of  which  are  against  ranked  opponents. Finally,  the  baseball  team  gets  their  season  underway this  weekend  in  Arizona  for the  2020  Angels  College  Classic, where  they  play  Oregon,  Pepperdine, and  San  Diego,  before  taking  on  Arizona  on  Monday. That's  all  for  this  week.  We'll  be back  again  next  week  to give  you  the  weekly  rundown  on  all  things  Gopher  Sports. Don't  forget  to  share,  subscribe  and  review. We'll  see  everyone  next  week.